Frey, Alexander M. (Arp, Hans; Mann, Thomas)

Kleine Menagerie (Small Menagerie)

Wiesbaden, Germany: Limes Verlag, 1955. First Edition. Hardcover. Inscribed and Signed by Jean (Hans) Arp, the German-French Dadaist, Sculptor, Painter, and Poet. Inscribed and signed by Jean (Hans) Arp, the German-French Dadaist, Sculptor, Painter, and Poet. "This little one in his set, his exuberance is so strange that I would like to give him a world of sympathy and recommendation for everyone who, under the grim circumstances of the day, still has a sense of the friendly and somewhat painful -- and somewhat sometimes somewhat frightening -- remoteness" (from pg. 5, in translation). Alexander Moritz Frey (1881-1957) was a German fantasist and satirist and friend to many of the German Dadaists during the Weimar Republic period (1919-1933) in Germany post-World War I. This is Frey's Kleine Menagerie which contains subsections like the "Liebenswerte Menagerie" (Lovers' Menagerie) from which we quote in translation, above. Frey, an outspoken pacifist, also bears the historical distinction of having served alongside Adolf Hitler in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment in the First World War. Frey's most famous claim is that the origin story of Adolf Hitler's infamous mustache lay in the latter's inability to put on a gas mask. This resulted in the need to trim the sides, giving the Fuhrer his famous pencil stache. This particular volume is brimming with German literary-&-art historical import, as it contains an introduction by that most quintessential of Germans from that time, the great Thomas Mann (1875-1955), the novelist, social critic, and essayist. Mann, whose work intensely probes the psychology of the artist and the intellectual (and the respective societal roles of both), initially laid some of the groundwork for an ultra-nationalistic German supremacism. This volume also bears the distinction of being inscribed and signed by Hans Arp (1886-1966), the German-French Dadaist, Sculptor, Painter, and Poet. We at TMB cannot determine the nature of Arp's inscription but know that the signature (in artist's pencil) reads: "Hans Arp." Alternate text in German. From the collection of Dr. Stanley Hurwick Levy (1926-2020), an American physician who met & conferred with Albert Einstein while a student prodigy at Princeton University during the 1940s, & was among the most legendarily prolific book collectors of them all, over many years. Book in strong near fine condition with only moderate-to-enunciated shelf-wear, age-toning rubbing, bumping, sunning, and some bump-creasing to front, back covers & spine-edge of same, yet the interior remains clean and unmarked. Dust jacket is in Good condition with moderate browning, color-fading to the front, back covers & spine; minor-to-moderate spotting to same; several closed tears along the edges of same. Near Fine / Very Good. [Item #6487]

Price: $400.00